Question
I had an auction end recently and fired off the end of auction notice. It's an Earthlink email address and I get back the dreaded:
I apologize for this automatic reply to your email.
To control spam, I now allow incoming messages only from senders I have approved beforehand.
If you would like to be added to my list of approved senders, please fill out the short request form (see link below). Once I approve you, I will receive your original message in my inbox. You do not need to resend your message. I apologize for this one-time inconvenience.
Click the link below to fill out the request:
Link removed
I don't hear anything for several days and file Non-Paying Bidder Warning after 8 days. I get this from her today:
"I am not sure why but when I was bidding on this item the price was at $24. I bid $1
more...ebay said I had been out bid and gave me an opportunity to bid again...I bid $1. Same thing
happened. I bid $1 more...Same thing happened. I bid yet $1 more...Same thing...ebay said I had been
outbid. I stopped at that point because I really didn't want to bid any higher. I feel like I should
not have to purchase the book because it almost seemed like a scam to get me to keep bidding."
As far as I know nobody forced her to bid!!
Don
Answer
Don, if it were my customer, I would explain the proxy bidding process which led her to be constantly outbid, and also let her know that Earthlink and eBay do not work well together if she is going to reject all sellers correspondence initially.
It is a pain, but I get newbies too, and consider it part of new customer development for all of us. EVen I was a newbie some eight years ago. Now I am a crusty old carmudgeon but know it is up to all of us to walk the newcomers through eBay's hoops.
They certainly don't do it very well.
Congrats on the sale, and good luck getting the payment!
Larry
Answer
I didn't think I would get paid, but she just Paypaled the payment to me. She put a note in with the payment:
"Note: I will pay. I hope something isn't messing up with ebay...maybe you
could ask them about why it would say "You have been outbid" and then tell
you that you won after you stop bidding."
I will email her and explain the proxy bid and how it works!
Answer
Don......by chance was there a bid retraction put in after her last bid that suddenly made her bid the highest?
Answer
I never thought of that! I did check and there was no bid retraction. I think she kept bidding $1 at a time and never looked at the last bid when she finally got the high bid. I emailed her the eBay description of how proxy bidding works. She only has a feedback of 2 so she's pretty new.